Is it genetic?

Spankedjenny
You are not a twisted freak. You are like a large number of people in the world. No one calls keep fit people freaks but some of them are blind to anything else. I am not blind to the rest of the world but do enjoy an activity that some people do not or will not understand.

I remember seeing a TV drama when I was quite young (about 8 or 9) in which a man (possibly a Conservative MP) visited a prostitute and got her to cane him. I was fascinated by this but it was explained to me that only weird, perverted, right wing men liked that sort of thing. So being a left wing female I kept very quiet.

@Spankedjenny
I think pretty much everyone with this kink who grew up pre-internet* had an "aha" moment once the www came around, previously having had to resort to ferreting out spanking passages and scenes in mainstream books and movies, looking up spanking words in dictionaries, and cautiously querying friends to satisfy our needs for info and titillation.

* some of us just being much more pre-internet than others

KatiePie
Never visited a prostitute for it but did get caned a lot at school. Now enjoy it. I am definitely not weird, right wing or perverted but I am a man. You should have ignored the advice and carried on anyway.

I believe you were just extemely unfortunate to hook up with one of the few men in the world that actually wouldn't enjoy giving his wife at least a short and playful spanking from time to time. I mean, even most men who are not spankers can find it enjoyable to swat their partner's rear every now and then. It blows my mind thinking, that if he reacted so strongly to that mild and consensual suggestion, what would he have said if you had come home with a parking ticket?

I don't know. I divorced him for cheating on me... A second time [that I know of] after promising it would never happen again. Funny how an interest in being spanked is "sick" but somehow marital infidelity is all well and fine.

Finally decided to add my two-pence worth (for what it's worth)..

I think our kink (and pretty much all kinks) are a result of our unique synaptic connections.
From what I know (and I am definitely NOT a neuro-scientist!) the billions of connections between synapses are made, in part, by our genetic coding, our experiences and random chance and are unique to each of us.

Broad areas of the brain can be mapped (such as for sight, hearing, memory and so on) but try to delve deeper into those connections and its like looking at a living and changing VERY complex 3D plate of spaghetti. So I don't think we'll ever be able to map that!

For me personally I have no idea where my interest in spanking came from as I was infrequently spanked as a child.

Anyway (aahh hem) this is my theory (cough cough) and I am sticking with it (ah hemmm).

(yes I grew up with Monty Python!)

Not so long ago an English guy I was drinking with was making fun of people who visited a Pro Dom, based on a recent news story. The justification for his mockery was what sort of idiot would dress up in silly clothes and pay for pain to be inflicted?

Without giving away my 'switch' pleasures, I pointed out to him that he cycled a lot, where he pushed himself until it hurt, and that there is nothing more ridiculous (revolting) than old men in tight, brightly coloured lycra on the streets. At least the Pro Dom operated in private.

When he claimed that was for fitness, I pointed out that in his younger days he had, like me, played social level rugby where you got punched, kicked and bitten all the name of fun with the lads.

He got the point because the subject changed.

That sounds like a plot to me. Have them meet, let's say the left wing feminist set to interview the right wing pervert, finding his view of the world repulsive, but through the contempt them have for each other, they eventually catch a glimpse of a common interest, eventually leading to dropped underwear and a cane working hard. Just imagine, spin a story from what would in our dreams have happened if you had not stayed quiet.